by Fr. Geoff Harvey
Finding the Orthodox Faith
I knew we needed to join the Church. I’d learned from Peter Toon that Christ’s Church exists as a physical reality on this earth. I knew Christ had said the gates of hell would never prevail against it, so I knew that it existed. And I had learned from Michael Harper that the Anglican Communion was simply no longer the Church.
As a Westerner, Roman Catholicism was the obvious choice. However, my dear mother said to me, when I explained my struggles, that she would support any decision I made, as long as I didn’t become a Roman Catholic! To be honest, I was shocked at her attitude, and put it … [Read more...]

by Fr. Geoff Harvey
The Crisis
I was called to serve at St. Luke’s in the Melbourne in the suburb of Springvale North. Having served with young Australians for seven years I felt a real calling to reach the young.
We used the Anglican Liturgy and I wore my vestments during services. We also ran a range of programs aimed at the youth. We had a band. We were the first parish in Australia to introduce the Alpha evangelism program. Alpha was marvellous in helping people come to faith. We also introduced Call to Serve — a brilliant discipling course for people in the parish. We grew. We were doing quite well over that decade.
But then, out … [Read more...]

by Fr. Geoff Harvey
Australia and Theological College
On retiring from the British Army, my father had migrated to Australia. I decided to join him and the rest of the family. Janet, a nurse I had met in London, agreed come to Australia to marry me. We settled in Adelaide.
I was surprised to find how “high” the Anglican ritual was there in Adelaide. I’d never been exposed to “high church Anglicanism.” It was quite an eye-opener.
I soon began working with the Navigators in South Australia. This was a good experience because it helped me realise that I really knew very little about theology. I was ‘skating on thin ice.’ There was no depth … [Read more...]

by Fr. Geoff Harvey
Inner peace
It was while I was serving in Northern Ireland that God inexplicably touched my life.
One of my fellow officers was a bomb disposal officer. I remember sitting down to breakfast with him. I can still see it in my mind. He had scrambled eggs with a tomato on the top. He was very quiet, probably thinking of his wife and two young children back in England. He went off to do his duty as he did every day.
He was called out to defuse a bomb. As he was expertly defusing it, it exploded and killed him. The bomb didn’t explode because of a lack of skill or lack of care. The bomb exploded because it was designed to … [Read more...]